Nancy Mitford Part II

Fanny marries Alfred Wincham, and they move to a small house in Oxford. Linda's marriage goes wrong almost immediately. She finds Tony's middle class ways irritating and he finds her frivolity annoying. She becomes pregnant, and has a daughter Moira, but she does not care for the child. Fanny becomes pregnant, and sees less of Linda, who is living in London and busy with a social life. Polly's romantic life takes a strange twist. Lady Montdore is a bossy domineering woman who has been having an affair with Boy Dougdale, a writer, who is married to Lord Montdore's sister. Boy is a writer of coffee table books about the upper classes and a snob. He and Lady Montdore are both super snobbish. Boy also likes to flirt and fool around with young girls and the Radlett girls have often been fondled by him... though they laugh at it. Then he took up with his sister in law and had a long standing relationship with her. But Patricia is tired out from her not very happy marriage, and she gets ill and dies. Boy has always been an unfaithful husband, but Patricia had been loyal to him. Now, suddenly, Polly tells her mother that she has proposed to Boy, and they are now engaged. Polly thinks that Boy is in love with her, but the truth is that he does not want to marry her. He is afraid because he knows it will causes a terrible rift between him and Lord and Lady Montdore and half of society will be shocked. But Polly is beautiful and he is a snob, and he cannot extricate himself...Davey tells the Radletts that while Boy did wrong in arousing Polly, as a young girl, he did not expect that she'd fall in love with him.

Nancy Mitford novels

Nancy's 2 best known novels are covering the same time period and some of the same characters. The chief character is Linda Radlett, and her cousin, Fanny Logan is the narrator of the books. Fanny is mousier than the lively eccentric Radletts. Linda believes in love and longs to be be grown up and to marry. But her family are not that rich and she has led a restricted life, in the country, without much mixing in "Society". She has taken a certain interest in the arts, so as to fit in with the arty upper class set but her father is a backwoods peer. He likes living in the country and doesn't approve of education for girls. He is grumpy and unsociable and rarely visits even country neighbours. Fanny has had a better education, having been brought up by her spinster aunt, Emily. Her aunt is more modern minded than the Radlett parents. Fanny falls in love with Alfred Wincham, an Oxford don, who is intelligent and kind, and who has very little money. But they get engaged and plan to marry. Lady Polly Hampton is a neighbour of the Radlett family. Her father has a large estate, Hampton. She is the only child of Lord and Lady Montdore, who have served the crown in India.. Polly is very beautiful, but seems dull and shy. Her domineering mother is upset that her beautiful daughter does not seem to attract suitors. She has put all her hopes on getting Polly married to someone rich and well bred. She herself is not faithful to her husband, but their marriage has been OK for most of their lives. Lady Montdore is irritated that the Radletts' daughters, with less money and beauty and less mixing in society than Polly has had, have gotten husbands as soon as they left the schoolroom. Linda met Tony Kroesig, the son of a wealthy banker, of German origin, and the couple fell in love. Her parents were not happy at the idea of them marrying, and neither were his parents. His father sends him off to America for a time but the young couple are determined and the families give in. They get married. Linda's sister Louisa has found a husband in her first season.

Nancy Mitford

Nancy was a socialite who started writing in the 1920s and 30s and became famous for her books about her high society family, I hope to blog about Love in a Cold Climate and Pursuit of Love, shortly

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, novella length about a young bar singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various pretty ladies but can he learn to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby. On Amazon.

RIP Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe died in her home, 62 years ago today. She had taken an overdose of drugs. Her life had been difficult from birth, to a mentally disturbed mother and an absent father. She was reared in foster homes and orphanages and married young to find a home. She worked in a factory when her husband was away at the war, and began to get noticed for her good looks. She became ambitious to get on in films - and had genuine talent as well as beauty. But she became addicted to pills and had unhappy love affairs including one with President Kennedy.

Rough Music story

This is a story set in the 1970s about a country rock band in the US. The 2 lead singers are good friends, and both of them have difficulties in their marriages.. due to long tours and being away from home. They also want to do good music, and not simply try to make money but their manager pushes them to be more commercial. The story is available on Amazon, by Nadine Sutton

Beb Asquith Part II

Beb's marriage to Cynthia was a moderate success. He was quiet and gentle and Cynthia was more socially outgoing. They were not well off, and this led to quarrels as Beb was extravagant, and Cynthia tried to rein him in. They had 2 sons, in the first years of their marriage. John was autistic and ended by being institutionalised. Beb joined the army when War broke out and this inspired some of his poems. War affected him very much. Like many men, he suffered from shell shock. His elder brother Raymond was killed and so were his wife's two brothers Hugo and Yvo. Cynthia was a flirtatious woman. She had several male admirers all through her marriage. She kept a diary which gives a picture of London at war, and Beb arriving and departing. He told Cynthia that he wanted to give up the law and become a full time writer, which added to their financial problems. He took up writing after the war and one of his poem, the Volunteer, became famous. Cynthia realised that she would have to support the family, so she squared her shoulders and looked around for some way of making a living. She took a part time job as secretary to JM Barrie, and began to look for writing projects. She had another son, Simon. Beb concentrated on his writing, but was never a great success. Cynthia became quite a popular writer. She wrote memoirs about her life, as one of the more intellectual members of upper class society. She also wrote a biography of Sonia Tolstoy and some books about the Royal family. Beb died in 1947- in Bath where he and Cynthia were living.